Millions of individuals engage in various physical activities for exercise to improve their cardiovascular condition. Additionally, athletes on a professional or amateur level compete in a variety of sports that wherein the participants utilize coaches or facilitators to provide guidance and/or motivation. Once such sport that utilizes coaches is swimming. Swimming is a popular sport across all age groups and is participated in at a competitive as well as an amateur level either for recreational exercise therapy or at a competitive level.
While engaged in swimming, participants typically will practice for at least an hour utilizing various strokes in order to traverse themselves across the surface of the water of the pool. Additionally, during some maneuvers such as starts and turns, individuals will be completely submersed underwater. To perfect strokes and increase their ability, athletes utilize coaches who can observe the athletes strokes while standing adjacent to the pool. It is routine for coaches to attempt to communicate with the athlete during their practice in order to provide better training or correction of an observed opportunity for improvement. Routinely coaches will either yell or utilize a megaphone or other similar device in order for the athlete to be able to hear the instructions since it is common for the athlete to be in a position where at least one of their ears is underwater. This conventional routine makes receiving the coaching instructions by the athlete difficult and routinely the athlete may stop their stroke in order to inquire about instructions received from the coach.
Athletes in swimming will often engage in a swimming practice that can last an extended period of time. It is common for athlete that engage in monotonous activities such as running, cycling or swimming to utilize devices such as MP3 or other audio players to listen to motivational instructions and/or music to assist them during the duration of their routine. Currently these type of audio device can not withstand being submersed in the water and must often be carried in water proof pouches that are cumbersome to a swimmer and provide unwanted drag in the water.
Casual athletes also have been shown to have accidental contact with either another swimmer in a crowded pool or with a wall of the pool when engaged in swimming. Certain conditions arise such as turbulent water, fogged swimming goggles or other conditions that temporarily inhibit the vision of the swimmer, which can result in a collision with another swimmer or an impact with the wall of the pool.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device that can be worn by a swimmer in the water that does not increase the swimmer's drag resistance that has the ability to receive audio signals from a transmitter in order to facilitate the receipt of instructions from a coach or receipt of audio such as music or motivational instructions. Additionally, the device should be able to detect the presence of an object generally in front of the swimmer wearing the device and provide an audio warning to the swimmer that an object is proximate the swimmer so as to avoid a collision.